The Story of Holly’s Magic Chair

On the way to the lake, you will pass Holly’s Magic Chair. Stop by. Take a ball. Or leave a ball.

From Ruth Osman, the story behind the chair:

When we returned from Goldstock 2008, I told my next door neighbor about the great time Holly had playing ball and racing for the lake. She had just been diagnosed with spinal neuropathy and she acted like she was 2 when she saw that lake not 15.

My neighbor said she sees tennis balls every day in the retention pond at the High School when she takes her walk early in the morning. She would look for them for Holly. Every day since that fall Holly would go out for her morning walk about 7:30 and there on the chair on our front porch would be a gift of one, two, sometimes and a jackpot of tennis balls. She would sniff each one, smile as if to say, “Wow this is such a magic chair.” And on the way back in she would grab one and add it to her pile. As the year went on I started putting the balls from the Magic Chair in a bag in the garage for Goldstock. The week before Goldstock 2009, Holly stopped checking the chair. Her thoughts were just of how to get up and down and if she could eat her breakfast. Her days of tennis balls were behind her, and she earned her wings just short of her 16th birthday and her trip to Goldstock 2009.

Holly would like you to all use her balls from the Magic Chair as we did in her memory that summer in 2009.